Package wrapper and method



g- 1943- G. D. DAVIDSON, JR. ET AL 2,327,024

PACKAGE WRAPPER AND METHOD Filed July 16, 1942 lhwentorsz GEORGE Dom/1w. Dav/050mm. 0 THEROH JEssE Hoe/mm, Je.

md um/ (Ittomegs Patented Aug. 17, 1943 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PACKAGE WRAPPER AND METHOD George Donnell Davidson, Jr., Wadesboro, and

Theron Jesse Norman, Jr., Charlotte, N. 0., assignors to The Herald Press, Charlotte, N. 0., a corporation of North Carolina Application July 16, 1942, Serial No. 451,096

1 Claim. (Cl. 229--51) wrapper are secured together. Usually a sealing operation is effected in such a manner that it is hard for one who desires to gain access to the package to obtain a sufficient beginning point whereby the sealed edges may be separated. Heretofore several methods have been employed for opening Cellophane wrapped packages, most of which involve tearing the wrappermaterial along seam lines or by using tear strips, and the I like. In many cases this is not satisfactory, be-' I cause a portion of. the wrapper is permanently damaged when the package is opened by such methods thus making it impractical to satisfactorily close the package again for protective purposes after once gaining access thereto.

It is an object of this invention to provide a wrapping for a package in which the wrapper is folded around the goods in such a manner that the closure ends thereof will overlap and project in opposite directions and in which the overlapping ends are bonded together by suitable means such as a heat seal having a given cohesive strength, one of said ends also having a pull tab secured thereto by means of a bond of a greater cohesive strength than the first-named bond. By providing bonds of different cohesive strengths the bond between the label and one overlapping end will be greater than the strength of the heat sealed bond between the overlapping ends themselves. Therefore, the heat sealed bond .will give way to cause the ends to be separated whena pull is exerted upon the label, and without causing the label to be torn or separated from its associated end.

Some of the objects of the invention having been stated, other objects will appear as the description proceeds when taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which: I

Figure 1 is an isometric view of a package wrapped in accordance with our invention;

Figure 2 is an isometric view of the wrapper prior to one end thereof being folded, the other endof said package having-been closed in any suitable manner;

Figure 3 is an isometric view similar to Figure 2 but showing the first step in folding the closure end of the package;

Figure 4 is a view of the wrapper after the second closure step has been accomplished in which the side folds have been turned inwardly on top of the end fold;

Figure 5 is an isometric view of the wrapper after all four folds of the closure end have been turned inwardly to completely close the upper end of the package;

Figure 6 is a view showing the action of th closure flaps when the same is being opened from the position shown in Figure l by exerting a pull.

on one end of the label;

Figure '7 is a sectional view taken along the line 1-1 in Figure 6;

Figure 8 is a sectional view taken along the line 8-4 in Figure 1;

Figure 9 is an isometric view of a slightly modified form of the invention prior to the pull tab being attached thereto;

Figure 10 is an isometric view similar to Figure 9 after the pull tab has been applied.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, the numeral 9 broadly designates a wrapper which is adapted to enclose products such as peanut butter sandwiches l0 and other merchandise. Figure 2 shows this wrapper after it has been formed in the shape of a rectangular container, and this shape comprises side walls ll, l2, l4, and i5. Integral with side walls Ii to l5 inclusive are closure flaps Ila. to l5a respectively, said flaps being united to the side walls along bend lines l1, I8, I 9, and 20 respectively. Additional diagonal bend lines 22 are provided in each flap Ila to l5a inclusive. These bend lines extend upwardly and inwardly from the corners of the wrapper and serve as guides for creasing the closure flaps when the upper end of the container is closed.

Figures 3 to 6 inclusive show the progressive steps in the closing of the container It. In Figure 3 the flap Ha is turned inwardly to substantially horizontal position to complete the first step. Next, the opposed side flaps lid and lid are folded inwardly to an overlapping position on top of flap Ila as shown in Figure 4, leaving only the flap Ila in an upright position. The final closing operation is effected by turning the flap a inwardly to the position shown in Figure 5, after which a lebel 2! is adhesively secured to the exposed surface of closure flap a and also to the exposed surfaces of the remaining flaps Ha, lid and lid. It is to be understood,

however, that due to the greater contact area between the fiap Ila and the label 25, the label will be more firmly secured to this fiap than to the remaining fiaps.

By observing Figure 6 it can be seen that the label 25, had adhesive 250 on one side thereto which serves as a uniting material. Also the label 25 has a pull tab 28 extending therefrom. This pull tab is not attachedto the container surface and therefore can be grasped by the user when it is desired to release the bond between the label and the exposed surface of flaps IIa, I2a, and I 5a to open the package. It will also be noted that the unattached pull tab 28 is substantially in alignment with the free end of the fia Ila, that is, it constitutes an extension of this flap.

The usual way of sealing the package when Cellophane is employed as a wrapping material is, first to apply the moistened label 25 so that the folds in the package will be held in the closed positon shown in Figure 1. Then the label is placed against a heating iron to cause the adhesive 25a to more firmly adhere to the Cello-- phane fiaps Ila to I5a inclusive, and to also cause the overlapping ends of Cellophane fiaps I la to lid to adhere to each other. This is what is commonly called a heat sealing operation. Such an operation will cause bonds of different cohering strengths to be produced. For example, the bond between the adhesive label 25 and the Cellophane flaps Ila to I50 inclusive will be of one strength and the heat sealed bond between the Cellophane fiaps themselves will be of a lesser strength. 7

Since the bond between the label 25 and its associated intumed fiap Ila will be of greater strength than the heat sealed bond between the Cellophane flaps themselves, the heat sealed bond will break when an upward pull is exerted upon the label to cause the closed package t0 assume the position shown in Figure 6. During this upward pull the label of course, will remain attached to fiap Ila.

Attention is called to the fact that the adhesive bond between the label 28 and the exposed surface of fiap IIa must be first broken before the heat sealed bond between the fiaps themselves is broken. This bond between the label and fiap I la of course, has the same cohesive strength as the bond between the label and flap Ila, but due to the fact that the contact area between and because the pull upon the label is first exerted at point 28 adjacent this bonded area, the bond between label 25 and fiap IIa may be easily broken without injuring the wrapping material or without separating the label from fiap I la. Figures 9 and 10 show a slightly modified form of the invention in which the label is secured to one fiap only, and the package is closed solely by the heat sealed bonds between the inturned fiaps themselves. It will be noted that the flaps which form an integral part with the side walls II to I5 are slightly longer and hence will be designated by the reference character lIb, I2b, Ilb and lib. The folding operation is identically the same as in the preceding case, but when the end of the container has been closed to the position shown in Figure 9, the flap Ilb will extend almost to the upper edge of the container sidewall II.

The exposed area of the top intumed flap Ilb is sufllcient to accommodate a label of a suitable size. This label is indicated by the reference character 28 and is attached to the flap Ilb by any suitable means such as an adhesive bond similar to that described in connection with the first form of the invention. Then the package is applied to a heating iron so that heat will cause the overlapping fiaps Ilb, I2b, Ilb, and ISbto become heat sealed to each other and also cause the adhesive label 28 to become more firmly bonded to fiap Ilb. Since the heat sealed bond between the flaps I II) to I51) inclusive is less than the adhesive bond between thelabel 28 and fiap Mb, it is evident that any upward pull upon the label will cause the heat sealed bond to become broken while the label 28 remains attached to its associated fiap.

A pull tab 29 forms an integral part with the label 28 so that the user may readily break the heat sealed bond when desiring to open the package. This pull tab is not attached to the wrapper and is positioned so that it acts as an extension of flap Ilb.

It is therefore seen that we have provided a novel splice which may be used to releasably close a package and which permits the package to be readily opened without permanently damaging any of the closure fiaps.

In the drawing and specification, there has been set forth a preferred embodiment of the invention and although-specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being defined in the claim.

We claim:

A container formed from a substantially rectangular sheet of material having opposed edges folded towards each/other to thus form tongues extending from the other two opposed edges, the two tongues being folded towards each other in overlapping relation and being secured to each other, and a label secured to the exterior of the two overlapping tongues, said label having a tab extending from the edge thereof which is adjacent the free end of the outer tongue, the label being secured to the outer tongue to provide a stronger union than the union between the two tongues so that when an outward poll is exerted on the tab, the label, will separate the outer tongue from the inner tongue.

GEORGE DONNELL DAVIDSON, Ja. THERON JESSE NORMAN, JR. 

